As anyone with even a trace of a regional dialect who has had to pay a parking fine can attest, voice recognition services struggle with accents. Now, people in Mark Sewards’ constituency in Leeds are likely to find the same problem with his AI variant.
A chatbot billed as the first AI version of an MP responds in Sewards’ voice with advice, support or by offering to pass on a message to his team – but only if it understands you.
The website, a virtual representation of the MP for Leeds South West and Morley – complete with a Pixar-style cartoon – was launched by a local startup to field questions from his constituents, some of whom have broad Leeds accents.
I was interested to see how “Sewardsbot” would handle a conversation with someone from only a couple of miles away from his constituency border.
Summoning my “home” voice (the one I had before it was adulterated by university, several years living in London, and many conversations with Guardian colleagues from East Sussex), I begin a conversation.
“Hi. I’m AI Mark Sewards, Labour MP for Leeds South West and Morley, can I help you today?” the character says, in Sewards’ voice.
“Now then,” I begin. My words appear on the screen, and while the bot doesn’t seem to understand it as a greeting – “now then” means “hello” in most of Yorkshire – it fills the gap in the conversation, asking for my name and contact details.
The AI version of Seward records all the conversations, with the aim that his team will be able to pick out the key topics that his constituents are talking about – something it has been criticised for.
Speaking of key topics, I go straight in with what is on many people’s minds: the horrendous images and video coming out of Palestine. “Are you gonna do summat about Gaza? Y’ant got it right Mark, love,” I say.
Sewardsbot handles this well, understanding that I’m broadly talking about Gaza, though doing nothing to explain the government’s position.
A message on the website had warned me: “AI Mark is a prototype digital assistant – this is a work in progress and not everything it says should be taken as fact. All responses are AI-generated.”
I try a few other phrases to see if I can throw it off with colloquialisms, asking if someone can call me, but that I’m at work “nine while half five so I can’t be ont’ phone” until after, and telling it I was “chuffed” to have had a chip butty in a nice breadcake in his constituency.
Its interpretation of my accent is terrible and much of it is transcribed as unreadable gobbledegook. Unlike a human, it doesn’t understand that the glottal stop used in front of words means “the”, although it manages to get the gist.
So I decide to ask the kind of problem a constituency MP might be requested to solve – even if it’s not their responsibility. “Me neighbour’s lad’s blocked’t ginnel at’t back wi an old settee and he won’t do owt about it. If someone dun’t come for it, it’s going in’t road,” I say.
I suspect Sewards himself would tell me to contact Leeds city council about flytipping, instead the AI tells me I need to speak to the police to report an abandoned vehicle.
MPs’ aides will no doubt be sighing in relief – they’ve got nowt to worry about just yet.